What Does 1 Samuel 10:11 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Hebrew uses one root for both the prophets and Saul’s prophesying, making their shared prophetic act louder than the crowd’s question about whether he belongs.
THE MEANING
People who already know you can witness a new expression emerge and still have no category for it. Their question shows how strongly an old identity can shape what they expect to see.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that people who know your past have already seen the full range of what can emerge from you.
THE ROOT
נִבָּא
nibbāʾ
GROWS FROM
נבא
n-b-ʾ
To prophesy, to speak as a prophet.
The Hebrew repeats נבא in both “prophets” and “prophesied.” English can make Saul sound like an outsider entering their circle; the shared root makes the prophetic act common to him and them.
ALSO GROWS
nāvīʾ: Prophet; one who speaks as a prophet.
נָבִיא
The group’s name shares its root with Saul’s action, linking the people to the act they are known for.
nĕvūʾāh: Prophecy.
נְבוּאָה
The same root names both the act Saul performs and prophecy itself.
יֹדְעָיו
yōdĕʿāw
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, perceive by encounter.
“knew” in this verse is yōdĕʿāw. The verse sets their prior knowing of Saul beside what they see him doing now. Their familiarity is real, but it does not contain everything that can emerge in the person they know.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: To know or perceive by encounter.
יָדַע
The root makes their prior familiarity with Saul concrete: they know him from experience, yet this moment exceeds their expectations.
daʿat: Knowledge, perception.
דַּעַת
This branch echoes the gap between what the people know of Saul and what they now witness.
שָׁאוּל
Shaʾūl
GROWS FROM
שאל
To ask, request.
Saul’s name carries the sense of “asked for,” echoing Israel’s request for a king. Here that requested king becomes the subject of the crowd’s questions as he appears among the prophets.
ALSO GROWS
shāʾal: To ask or request.
שָׁאַל
The root links Saul’s name to the earlier request for a king that shaped his public identity.
sheʾēlāh: A request or question.
שְׁאֵלָה
The crowd’s repeated questions about Saul echo the asking-root carried in his name.
THE PATTERN
Prophetic speech can emerge through people whose established identity does not predict it.
And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:THE THREAD
And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.The breath of the LORD comes upon Saul, and the same נבא root names what he does next, tying the source to the speech. “Turned into another man” makes explicit the shift the crowd is witnessing.
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